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Chase- Anyway Bret was a good companion as well, getting into it with the Doctor more than once. And wasn't there a TARDIS forcefield in this one? And wasn't Steven somehow taken over? Was he infected or somethng? I can't recall but I recall Steven bluffing the Daleks in order to escape into th TARDIS and using the forcefield. Also: Wasn't there a chair that made people stick to it in the console room?

Okay Chase, having just watched the whole thing I can answer these questions with some degree of confidence.

1. Steve charges the fake taranium core with gravity energy from the 'liberated' Dalek spaceship, despite warnings from Sara and the Doctor not to do it. Although the process works for energizing the core, Steven is nearly killed, as he recovers he is stunned and unable to communicate and enclosed in a gravatic force field. This saves him from a point blank shot for a Dalek gun, but then dissapates.

2. The Doctor states that the TARDIS force shield operates on a principal similar to that which protected Steven.

3. Both the Doctor and Sara indicate that Gravity drives are old dangerous technology. Steve is from centuries earlier than Sara and says it was a common place spaceship power supply when he flew. This is quite strange considering they are in a Dalek ship and every where else in the Story it is implied that Dalek technology is in advance of that of the humans and other races (with the exception of TimeLords - The Monk and Doctor.

4. The Doctor has a 'magnetic chair' which can restrain people in the TARDIS - although there dosn't appear to be a requirement that iron or steel be present on the parts of the person whom is being restrained. Bret is held in this until he convinces Katrina toi release him.

Chase- The Monk is a welcome addition to the canon and the story and as you say, I can't add anything to what you said, but as you say, he's not totally evil, just mishievious and plotting and wants to get his own back, almost like a sissified Batman villain. Only much much better. Sara and Steve even seem amused by him but Steven gets annoyed with him. In some strnage way, the Monk almost feels like a psuedo companion!

Indeed, I think at one point Steven even asks if they are not going to go back to get the Monk. i.e., check he is okay.

Chase - Sara's death was shocking and I don't know why the Doc let her stay to "help" him. Near as I can see, she isn't helping him carry the Core at all, therefore dies for no reason whatsoever. ANd if one flick of the switch can turn if off...or did it just burn out? why couldn't the Doctor figure it out. I mean I am pretty sure one of them puts the Core in reverse and sends the Daleks back to embryos so why couldn't switching it the other way have saved Sara? Maybe the Doc didn't know it could do that.

Sara's death was about duty. She thought she was expendable for the safety of the Solar System. She went back to make sure that the Doctor suceeded, it wasn't worth the risk that he might not make it.

With the benefit of forty years of hindsight into Docotr Who, the modern viewer may not be surprised that the aging phenominon didn't kill the Doctor, however at the time of broadcast, I'm sure many viewers must have been surprised that the Doctor didn't wither and die even more quickly than Sara.

To answer your question about the device, it stops because the taranium power supply burns out.

Chase- The real low point of the whole Hartnell era must be that 1920s sequence in Hollywood.

That good, because I'd hate to think anything worse was coming up.

Chase-Mavic Chen goes way over the top in his death scene

And this would differ from the Master (john Simm), Davros (Gooderson, Wisherson or Molloy) or Omega (Thorme) in what particular aspect?

That was a great post. I loved how you detailed all the stuff from DALEK MASTERPLAN. I agree with almost all of what you wrote. I really liked this story. I did when I read the archives years ago, I did when I heard the audio versionS, and I liked it when I saw the reconstructions. I think as a massive 12 parter it just keeps on going and has time to develop situations and characters. I don't know why they put in Katarina. It could be they felt she'd be a good companion and then realized how limiting a companion she would be. It could be she was always going to get killed off to show how dangerous the Doctor's world is/can be. In fact, I think the Doc forgot to close the door and that is what lead to Katarina's death---not closing the door when he should have lead to the criminal getting board the ship in the first place but the Doc said it was because he didn't know much about these ancient type spaceships.

Katrina was a limited and limiting character but it would have been nice to have someone from the past leanring and changing. Her death scene and the stuff before it was nicely tense and serious and indeed, made things deadly dangerous. Sara Kingdom starts out cold and menacing and then gets sympathetic, having just obeyed orders from what seems like a controlling Federation (could be the start of the Federation from BLAKE'S 7, which is also said to have come from the eventual history that came from THE SURVIVORS --the original you might say). She then mellows to the point of not being able to take care of herself and was a cut out companion, still Jean Marsh imbibes so much personality in her that...well, she's intersting throughout. Still having had one comp kill the other never happened before or since! Maybe Capt Jack will get killed off by Donna or something? No? No. Anyway Bret was a good companion as well, getting into it with the Doctor more than once. And wasn't there a TARDIS forcefield in this one? And wasn't Steven somehow taken over? Was he infected or somethng? I can't recall but I recall Steven bluffing the Daleks in order to escape into th TARDIS and using the forcefield. Also: Wasn't there a chair that made people stick to it in the console room?

In any event, I like THE CHASE aspects here. Here, it's much better than the unfunny funny stuff from THE CHASE like the Empire State Building sequences or the stupid hitting Ian by mistake on the Marie Celeste or that wretched silly so bad it's funny Haunting House fair. Eygpt seemed dangerous enough but was moreso due to Mavic Chen and the Daleks being there and neither having much care for the locales. Hartnell in white hat is super again especially when he hands over the fake Core to Mavic Chen. The Monk is a welcome addition to the canon and the story and as you say, I can't add anything to what you said, but as you say, he's not totally evil, just mishievious and plotting and wants to get his own back, almost like a sissified Batman villain. Only much much better. Sara and Steve even seem amused by him but Steven gets annoyed with him. In some strnage way, the Monk almost feels like a psuedo companion!

Sara's death was shocking and I don't know why the Doc let her stay to "help" him. Near as I can see, she isn't helping him carry the Core at all, therefore dies for no reason whatsoever. ANd if one flick of the switch can turn if off...or did it just burn out? why couldn't the Doctor figure it out. I mean I am pretty sure one of them puts the Core in reverse and sends the Daleks back to embryos so why couldn't switching it the other way have saved Sara? Maybe the Doc didn't know it could do that.

The real low point of the whole Hartnell era must be that 1920s sequence in Hollywood. It's cliched, boring, stupid, silly and not remotely realistic or funny. It makes no sense and at times, it borders on offensive and almost retarded. I DO like the scenes in the present when the Doc gets involved with the policemen and Sara tries to fix the TARDIS thingie on top (the navigation thing?). That was nice but the Holly wood stuff is total garbage and seemingly at times prejudice.

Mavic Chen goes way over the top in his death scene but he's slowly losing his mind it would seem. I couldn't tell one alien from the other and ...they did get set free to leave and wanr the rest of the universe? Anyway none of them were consistent from ep to ep and the spaceships looked pretty good to be honest. In a Flash Gordon kinda way. Hartnell does a great job sneaking around.

I liked all this and this story had a lot of time to develop and it was all the better for it and the Daleks seemed dangerous to me in this and all the characters seemed well developed. Too bad longER stories in the future wouldn't do this---ala TRIAL OF A TIME LORD. Although the INVASION did.

That was bloody brilliant. I have a feeling this may be one story that is best watched all in one go with all four eps at one time. Sutton and Fielding do a great job especially when confronted by the Master. Their looks say it all: the fear, the hatred they feel for him and the utter inability to stop him. I love Nyssa's near bluff to the Master. I also like how the whole history of Castrovalva was fake and why did'nt the Master realize the books should not chronicle the history up to the present day? Also: the Master pretty much fooled me with his diguise. I didn't know for a second he was the Portreve.

Ainley goes a bit overboard with "MY WEB!" in the end but he was utterly fascinating as the Master at least to me. Davison seems heroic enough for now and even gets a few Davison isms in but again, he's no Tom Baker. But it was all suitable and the ending was good, again, Adric saves the day.

I don't understand how the Master and Adric weren't on the Master's TARDIS or was that black room with the Hadron web, the master's TARDIS? if so, wtf?

Anyway there's one strange scene where Tegan says NO to Shardovan carrying the Zero Cabinet...and then...he's carrying it iwth one of the other Castrovalvans?! WTF? Then Tegan comes running from behind and says she repsonsible for the Doctor and she starts carrying it. As if no one knew about the scene before! I also wonder why the cliffhanger reprise had to be over two minutes long. Tha'ts long!

This climax is very watchable, entertaining and well acted by all involved. I love the ending where Tegan is dissapointed and the Doctor seems optimistic about who he is. Well done. Now the team seems finally together, happy with each other, saving each other and caring for each other as shown when Tegan saves Adric or wants to anyway... so the next story should have them working as a well oiled machine, right?

In the post titled: Bye Susan Adric has 4 points left. In the next post he has 2 taken away and therefore 2 left, this is shown as follows 2 (-2). The two in parenthesis is how many were taken away and the first 2 is how many he has left. He then survives a few more posts before having the final two taken.

It works like this, look:

X starts with 10 points thus: X 10

Then when somebody wants to take away 2 points the next post will look like this: X 8 (-2)

Yeah I know, Adric has FOUR and in the next post he has TWO. Then two was minused from two to get zero. But if you see what i Mean he lost TWO from no one as in one post he had 4 and nothing in parathesis (meaning no one minused those two to get two i the next post). Then in the next post he had TWO despite no one minusing TWO from his four. Then they minused TWO.

I knew better than to play this game anyway as it's not correctly done but whatever, I tried.

Yeah I have to agree that it's unbearable and embarassing but thanks Louis for posting it! (?). What I mean is it gives us a real taste of what's it like so that we don't think we're missing something great if we never get to see it! A total low for DW and the DW actors, pathetic and made me want to disassociate myself frm this lame show that would do this. Still, was it charity? I guess that's always good if it really goes to a good cause. SOmetimes others think it was money being made to go to keeping the show on the air. It was all mismanaged.

I agreee with everything you said but I would probably put MARCO POLO above the AZTECS but as they're so different in almost every way...except wnating to get back to the TARDIS and being historicals...

One thing to notice is that UNEARTHLY CHILD (great first ep) may not be a historical at all. Certianly the production team thought of it as our past as in ONE MILLION BC the movies but...if you look closer it might not be Earth at all that they're on! Which is imaginative to think it might be a human colonized planet or these might be aliens! Just a thought.

Hartnell excells in all these stories, his performance does not hinge on anything over the top (EDGE OF DESTRUCTION comes close but even over the top, he does a great job and makes the Doctor fascinated, fascinating, mysterious, admiring, bold, brash, and at times wrong as only an old man can be wrong and in spirit, he's sometimes WRONG as with treating Barbara and Ian so coldly in the first story and in this ---but so much in the Daleks). In THE DALEKS, he seems like a human old man, getting sick before the others and not at all like an alien. Yet...there's always that something that Hartnell, even if the scripts don't, suggests that the Doc is not quite human but not quite an alien so far removed from an old man. Brilliant that. ANd his flubs are just adorable and funny...whether or not he meant them. In MASSACRE as he plays someone else, he makes no flubs as that other character, which might suggest that he did the flubs, mostly, on purpose as part of the Doc's old man nature.

Susan: yeck! She has her moments but overall they blew it as she could have been so alien, so strange and had some powers as hinted at in THE SENSORITES. Instead, she's supposed to be the teens' audience identification character but then she's so young in an older body, it seems as she's 16 supposedly (but liek most things in DW it's open to interpretation) and younger kids might not really identify with that and she's so whiney...who likes that? She's also a screamer, a worrier, and a perpetual victim. As the first companion, I guess that's okay as she sets up the screamer thing and worrier thing and complaining thing for future Peri's, Mel's and Jo's and Victoria's of the world. She must have some knowledge of science as Zoe did in future stories but she's justs sort of there and truthfully the actress isn't all that good.

Ian: that's more like it. Really the hero and he's not bold and brash and not conceited or even James Bond-ish. In fact, he seems like the best charater, the most real, the most down to Earth and the most fit to survive and he cares about all the others, even the Doctor, who he seems to develop a grudging amusement over. He so obviously loves Barbara right from the outset and seems protective of her and Susan...and the actor is so up for all of it. Even does well in the strange EDGE OF DESTRUCTION.

Barbara: has her great moments but can be reduced to a blithering, idiot, screamer, whiny, annoying stubborn fool! but then again in these situations wouldn't you? SHe can also be conceited and in your face, a nag in space. Yet, she also has many many sympathetic scenes in all the stories. In fact, I'd have liked AZTECS more if she wasn't so...in your face. I think the actress is a good one and I'm fond of her and seeing her literally wasted in MEGLOS bothered me. Too bad she couldn't have come back as Barbara.

The execution overall is great. KEYS OF MARINUS with the rubber skin suited Voord is probably the worst in execution but even that has atmosphere, acid sea, pryamids, jungles, a trial done right, mystery, and so many diffrent aspects of the Doctor, from legal to plotter to victim, that there's so much going on, it resembles the season in micro. I believe the companions even start a rebellion in this. Thus, the AZTECS and the other stories around it set up DW for the future and the show seemed very stretcheable. A GREAT SEASON.

Since I posted this earlier today, the time slot for the airings has been extended. The new air-times are 9:00 PM - 10:15 PM and Midnight to 1:15 AM. 'The Graham Norton Show' has been reduced to accomodate the 'Doctor Who' episode.

This first season of Doctor Who scores a 9 out of 10. The quality of the story telling overall has been exceptional and even though a life-long Doctor Who fan, before I started I was intially afraid that I would struggle in parts. The opposite, in fact, has happened and my enjoyment has grown with the development of the main characters.

The science fiction stories were well told, on the whole, with the best, in my opinion, of course, being the Daleks’ first tale and the weakest, to my mind, the Keys of Marinus saga (Terry Nation taking both extremes there!) which suffered from not having enough time to tell the story which it wanted to.

The historicals have been excellent (and just like Dr Whoovie – I have preferred these) with the best being the Aztecs and the worst the last three episodes on an Unearthly Child.

The characters have grown, becoming fleshed out over the season, with the Doctors irascibility and unpredictability gradually being tempered by a strong sense of morality, and Ian and Barbara relaxing into their roles as wanderers of the fourth dimension and now actually enjoying their travels with the Doctor. The only character who seems to have suffered in terms of long-term development has been Susan, for me. She began the series as an interesting combination of British teenager from the sixties and alien outsider but by the Reign of Terror seems to do little more than scream at the sight of rats and hang on to Barbara at every turn. Shame, because she could have been so much more.

The supporting characters were well-written, and added a real sense of community to the times and places which the travellers visit.

The whole series felt like one coherent story to me, a fact aided by the cliff hangers at the end of each episode but also each story leading into the next.

I’m not sure why I should be surprised at just how much I’ve enjoyed this, but I am, and I’m bristling to move on to season two.

This episode, I don't know why maybe it's because I know what's going to happen, starts out slow and gets slower and slower and slower. I guess when I first watched it I was excited by all the possibilities it had: savage war party, strange strangers in a strange place with a hint of menace by at least one or two of the Castrovalvans and the strange way the city was built plus the odd ways the city was filmed and the way the people moved through it, including Nyssa, the Doctor and Tegan, even before the cliffhanger lead up. And I defy anyone to tell me that they knew the real identity of the Master as the Portreve. That was a brilliant move. Then we have lunch or whatever dinner maybe and the Doctor discussing Ogrons and Daleks and that it is nice to have the universe not thought of as filled with nasty creatures. Indeed, this is a nice change. The entire episode is nice and finishes almost nice. There is something subtle going on and it's a bit unsettling. The Adric wraith stuff is well done and again, I'm sorry, but Waterhouse does a great job of acting during thse short pivotal scenes. Davison is still not fully regenerated or settled in and during some of this ep, isn't sure who he is! That's great! He's doing a good job but I must admit on this viewing, if not the first few times, I was having Tom Baker withdrawal. I miss his Tomisms and Davison, while he tries to quote a few things and has a few Doctorisms, isn't really up to TOm Baker's type. He also...and I think the celery thing is stupid, even if I didn't think of it then--gets his celery. There's little tension, real tension here but there is a bit of mystery building. And the last scene of the trio trying to escape Castrovalva...is very cool as they keep returning to the same place and never really get anywhere, "We're caught in a space time trap!" Of course, just like the cliffhanger resolution at the start of this ep ("The Doctor must have walked out.") next week it doesn't seem like much of a big problem at first. Fielding does a bit better here in acting. Sutton is good too, especially when she has to shut up and just look out a window. The music is still lovely and the little girl and the Doctor interact nicely. A good, NICE episode but...where is Tom Baker? :)

I found REIGN to be variable but I enjoyed all the eps. with parts 1 and some of 2 very serious, 3,4, and some of 5 a bit silly but enjoyable and funny and the last eps with a man shot in the face, quite creepy in the way it was filmed and heard but not seen! Hartnell is in top form as are all the regulars. I must admit the terror of this time period is conveyed well as is the filth in the cells and the various factions that went on at that time and it's all well done. I am amused as how Hartnell keeps the DOctor both mysteerious, old, funny, and adorable but even then he just uses a small amount of THree Stooges violence. The sets are adequate this time and give a real sense of place and time. I never found all the back and forth tedious and in fact, found the various locations and characters quite interesting as well as the Doctor playing dress up. The whole thing amounts to a really good historical and tense as well as beliveable. IMO